Pierre and Marie Curie University

Pierre and Marie Curie University
Name	Pierre and Marie Curie University
Caption	The main campus in the Latin Quarter of Paris
Established	1971
Closed	2017
Founder	University of Paris
City	Paris
Country	France
Affiliations	Sorbonne University, League of European Research Universities

Contents

History
Campus and facilities
Academic profile
Research and innovation
Notable people
See also

Pierre and Marie Curie University. Commonly known as UPMC, it was a major public research university in Paris, France, specializing in science, technology, and medicine. Established in 1971 following the division of the historic University of Paris, it was named in honor of the Nobel Prize-winning scientists Pierre Curie and Marie Curie. The university was a cornerstone of French higher education and research until its merger in 2018 to form the new Sorbonne University.

History

The university's origins trace back to the University of Paris, one of the world's oldest academic institutions, founded in the 12th century. Following the May 1968 events in France and the subsequent Faure Law, the historic university was decentralized and split into thirteen autonomous institutions in 1970. UPMC, officially designated as Paris VI, was created in 1971, inheriting the scientific and medical faculties of its predecessor. It quickly established itself as a premier center for scientific research, building upon a legacy that included the work of Louis Pasteur and Henri Poincaré. In 2017, as part of a national trend of university consolidations, UPMC merged with Paris-Sorbonne University (Paris IV) to create Sorbonne University, a process formalized in 2018.

Campus and facilities

The main campus of UPMC was located in the Latin Quarter on the Jussieu Campus, a large modernist complex developed in the 1960s. This site housed the majority of its faculties, including those for physics, chemistry, and mathematics, and featured extensive laboratory facilities. The university also operated significant medical campuses co-located with major Parisian teaching hospitals such as Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital and Saint-Antoine Hospital. Other facilities included the Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris and marine science stations like the Observatoire océanologique de Banyuls-sur-Mer in Banyuls-sur-Mer and the Station biologique de Roscoff in Roscoff.

Academic profile

UPMC offered a comprehensive range of programs primarily in the STEM fields, alongside medicine. It was organized into several faculties and departments, including the Faculty of Medicine and the Faculty of Engineering. The university was a founding member of the Paris Centre University group and was highly selective, particularly in its competitive health science tracks. It awarded numerous Bachelor of Science, Master of Science, and Doctor of Philosophy degrees, and its curriculum was closely integrated with leading research organizations like the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and Inserm.

Research and innovation

Research at UPMC was world-renowned, spanning fields from quantum physics and organic chemistry to computational neuroscience and marine biology. It operated in close partnership with major French research institutions, hosting many joint CNRS and Inserm units. The university was a hub for particle physics research connected to CERN and made significant contributions to climate science and astrophysics. Its innovation ecosystem supported technology transfer and the creation of spin-off companies, particularly in biotechnology and nanotechnology, leveraging resources from the Paris Biotech Santé incubator.

Notable people

The university community included many distinguished scholars and alumni. Among its faculty were Nobel laureates such as Pierre-Gilles de Gennes (Nobel Prize in Physics) and Claude Cohen-Tannoudji (Nobel Prize in Physics). Other prominent faculty included mathematician Alain Connes, a recipient of the Fields Medal, and chemist Jean-Marie Lehn, a Nobel laureate in Chemistry. Notable alumni span various fields, including astronaut Jean-Loup Chrétien, former European Space Agency head Jean-Jacques Dordain, and politicians like former French Minister Claudie Haigneré.